264 Forty- FIFTH Report on the State Museum. 



the pa«t year, in the punctures made by a minute caterpillar — 

 a Coleophora — wliicli, always concealed within the peculiar case 

 that it carries with it — if seen, as it doubtless often has been 

 loj the fruit-grower, would not be suspected of belonging to the 

 insect world. Another new pest is biifiiing me and eluding my 

 •efforts for its discoveiy, through its secret girdling (believed to 

 l>e at night) with a circle of incisions the tips of currant bushes 

 in certain localities in New York, and causing them to break 

 off and fall to the ground. There ai'e cut-worms which leave their 

 hidden retreats beneath the ground or shelter of rubbish, only after 

 mght-fall and climb into grapevines, where they cut off the clusters 

 of the grapes, and into fruit trees, severing the stems of leaves 

 and fruit. Numerous other insects intensify the loss that they 

 occasion by the secrecy mth which it is inflicted, and the conse- 

 quent difficulty of meeting it. Of this class are the burrowei-s 

 within the stems and stalks of plants or in trunks of trees, tho 

 numerous and destructive bark-borers which feed within the vital 

 sap-wood, and leaf-miners, so minute as to find ample feeding 

 ground in the range and concealment given them between the 

 surfaces of a leaf. 



The Small S zk of Insects. 



Nature often teaches us the lesson, of which we need frequently 

 to be reminded, that size is no criterion of importance. Thus, 

 among om* insect foes, many of the most injurious are among the 

 smallest of their class, and, hence, we have the seeming pai*adox — 

 ''the smaller the insect the greater its capability for harm." In 

 confirmation of this we may cite the grapevine Phylloxera {Phyl- 

 loxera vitlfolin') which was first discovered by Ur. Fitch, in 

 Washington county, N. Y., in the year 1854, — was incroduce<l iii 

 France in 1863, and subsequently multiplied tO' such an extent 

 as to threaten the entire destruction of that most important inter- 

 ■est to France — grape culture. In 1879, nearly 3,000,000 of acres 

 of infesited vines had been taken up, destroyed, and the land appro- 

 I>riated to other uses. For several years, annual appropriations 

 amounting to nearly |200,000 were made by the government for 

 Phylloxera investigations, and a reward ha® been offei'ed of 

 300,000 francs (|60,000) foi' the discovery of an effectual remedy. 



